State Holds Hearings on Six Flags' Alcohol Permit Application

A 12-year-old girl has collected hundreds of signatures for a petition opposing the sale of alcohol at Six Flags Over Texas.

Christi Campbell, a Six Flags season ticket holder, said she doesn't want the amusement park to sell beer. She said she called the Arlington City Council to see what she could do after she learned Six Flags had applied for a permit to sell beer.

"If people want to drink, they can go somewhere else and do it, but not somewhere where it's about family," Campbell said.

She wrote a petition opposing beer sales and collected 300 signatures, which she will present Tuesday at a Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission meeting.

After receiving hundreds of letters opposing Six Flags' permit application, the commission scheduled a two-day protest hearing.

Six Flags said it applied for the permit because adult visitors said it would be nice to have beer with their meals at the park.

"If they brought beer to Six Flags, you could get more of an adult crowd there instead of little kids running around," Arlington resident Chris Jordan said.

He said he didn't see how it would be different from the beers sales at Rangers, Cowboys, Mavericks and Stars games.

But Campbell said the nature of the rides at Six Flags could make people who have been drinking sick.

"If you have people throwing up everywhere, then not a whole bunch of other people will come," she said.

Six Flags spokeswoman Sharon Parker told NBC 5 that the park would serve beer "responsibly."

"It will only be offered in select, well-monitored locations and served in specially marked cups by TABC-certified staff," she said.

The hearings will be held Tuesday and Wednesday at 10 a.m. at the Innsuites Hotel at 2000 Beach St. in Fort Worth.

A judge will have 60 days to issue a ruling in the matter.